Blogito ergo sum! Actually, as N.T. Wright averred, "'Amor, ergo sum:' I am loved, therefore I am." Among other things, I am a Roman Catholic deacon. This is a public cyberspace in which I seek to foster Christian discipleship in the late modern milieu in the diakonia of koinonia and in the recognition that "the Eucharist is the only place of resistance to annihilation of the human subject."

Pages

Monday, April 19, 2010

Pope Benedict XVI- Five years on

Five years ago this very day, after the announcement Habemus papam, Pope Benedict XVI stepped onto the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica. We are blessed to be led by a man as wise and humble as Joseph Alois Ratzinger. Ad multos annos! It is impossible to know how difficult walking in the shoes of the fisherman from Galilee is. So, we must pray for him daily. As I read the Gospel at Mass yesterday, these words, which come after the resurrected Jesus told Peter "Feed my sheep," words that Pope Paul VI quoted frequently in his personal journal: "Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go," struck me powerfully. Indeed, we can be quite sure that what has happened over these past weeks is not a path he would have chosen, but one he walks with confidence in the One who is leading him beyond where he does not want to go and which constitutes his path to destiny. I, for one, appreciate very much his personal witness, his humility, but above all his deep and abiding faith, from which the hope expressed in all his recent public statements is rooted. Let's not forget that it was the deep desire of then-Cardinal Ratzinger's heart to retire to his little house in Bavaria and write, pray, and reflect. File that one under if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Me

I am husband and Dad to six lovely children. I am also a Roman Catholic deacon of the Diocese of Salt Lake City. I married in 1993, became a Dad for the first time in 1994 and most recently in 2011 (quite a spread). I was was ordained in 2004. I am assigned to The Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City. I am a graduate of the University of Utah and the Institute in Pastoral Ministry at St. Mary's University of Minnesota.

Madeleine Delbrêl

"We fashion the immortal being we are through our choices. Through our choices we bring the man in us to the fullness of life or to the worst of human suffering. At the hour of his death each human being has become either a person who will live with God forever, or who will be without God forever" Madeleine Delbrêl

St. Paul

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom. 12:1-2)